This invention relates to devices and techniques for vending or dispensing and receiving articles, and is especially directed to a returns cabinet in which hospital garments, i.e., scrubs can be received and held until they can be taken to a laundry facility. The invention is more specifically concerned with a belt-type returns unit, in which hospital scrub tops and bottoms are accepted and stored in a system of belts or webs, and which can be unloaded for laundering by reversing the direction of the belts.
Surgical scrubs are a type of hospital or surgical garment, most typically, the green shirts and pants that are worn in hospital operating rooms. These garments are issued to hospital personnel and serve to prevent contamination between patients and health workers. When the hospital personnel doff the garments, or when the scrubs become soiled or contaminated, they are expected to return them. Often this involves simply tossing the garments into a laundry basket, or else onto the floor, and with no control over who has or has not returned their scrub suits. Recently, there has been an effort to use a scrub return facility to account for these garments. Dispensers and return units may be tied to a network in the hospital laundry facility to keep track of the numbers and sizes of scrub tops and bottoms checked out to each of the hospital personnel, and to alert laundry personnel when a dispenser is running out of garments, if the returns unit is full, or if a machine becomes jammed or inoperative for some reason.
Hospitals and clinics usually provide scrubs to surgeons, nurses and attendants at no cost to them. For purposes of this discussion, the surgeons, physicians, nurses, visitors, and others who obtain scrubs can be considered xe2x80x9ccustomers.xe2x80x9d Each customer is permitted to have some limited number of scrubs outstanding at any one time, and is expected to return the scrubs to the return facility when they have been worn or if they become soiled. Traditionally, hospitals would leave a stack of clean scrubs in the changing rooms for the physicians, nurses and staff. These would have a tendency to disappear during the day, and would not be available later in the day or in the evening. This led physicians to hoard scrubs in their locker so they would not be caught without scrubs in the evening. This hoarding has led to shortages, which led to greater hoarding. Another method was to assign a hospital attendant with the task of issuing scrubs to customers, but with no real control or accounting for how many scrubs were dispensed. Soiled scrubs were returned by leaving them in laundry carts in the changing rooms, or simply leaving them lying on the floor of the changing room. However, even with this limited level of control, because the hospital must be open at all times, and because fresh scrubs may be needed in any and all the various surgery facilities within the hospital, staffing the laundry attendant position has become a burden on the hospital. For these reasons, there has been much interest recently in automating the issuance and return of hospital garments. In addition, there remains the need to account for the numbers of scrub tops and bottoms issued to each customer, as well as the need to maintain data concerning scrub usage for purposes of re-stocking.
One example of a vending or dispensing device for hospital garments of this type is described in Fitzgerald et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,985, and an associated scrubs return cabinet is described in U.S. Pats. Nos. 5,713,270 and 5,829,349. This return cabinet can be connected to a computer server in the laundry for accounting for the scrubs and crediting the customers for returned scrubs. Here, access to the unit is obtained by inputting customer identification, either on a bar code reader or a keypad. This then permits the bin door to be opened, and credits the customer for the return of the scrub suit. There is a video camera and video cassette recorder or VCR in the unit which videotapes images of the scrubs as they are being returned, and may also videotape an image of the customer""s face. In order to compact the garments that fall into the bin, the scrubs return cabinet has an arm assembly that swings down to compress the returned scrubs. To remove the scrubs from the unit, the laundry attendant has to open the doors on the front of the unit and reach down into the bin to retrieve the soiled scrubs.
It was desired to create a scrubs return cabinet with additional advantages, such as receiving the scrubs at a convenient level so that the customer does not have to bend down, and which can accurately credit the customer for the garments returned. It was also desired to make it possible for the laundry attendant to retrieve the returned scrubs in an automated or mechanized fashion by discharging them into a laundry bin.
It is also desired to create a returns system and technique that can be used with articles other than hospital garments, such as towels which may be issued to guests at a hotel swim pool or fitness facility.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a garment returns cabinet or station that avoids the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is another object to provide a returns cabinet that facilitates customers"" return of soiled hospital scrubs and which facilitates retrieval of the scrubs for laundering.
An improved scrubs dispensing or vending facility is the subject of a separate patent application by the same inventor.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a returns cabinet receives hospital garments to be picked up and laundered, and credits the customer with the return. In a rather compact cabinet housing there is a return port or loading door for the customer to place the hospital garment(s) to be returned. The customer inputs a keypad and/or a badge or card reader to allow the loading door to be opened. This enters the customer""s ID, as well as an identification of the scrubs being returned. Within the cabinet housing is a system of belts and reels that capture the scrubs and compress them until they can be discharged to the laundry attendant. A back reel within the cabinet housing supplies a first web belt that is wound on it and a front reel housing supplies a second web belt that is wound it. A lower reel or drum, i.e., a take-up reel in the cabinet housing takes up both said first and second web belts together, as well as any returned scrubs that are captured between the belts. Drive motors with or without clutches turn these reels. A system of idlers and rollers defines a path for the belts from their respective front and back reels to the lower reel. This belt path is configured such that a portion of one of the first and second belts defines a landing spot or zone where the returned garment falls after it is placed in the return or load port, which can be a drawer or door. The cabinet may contain a controller board that is coupled to customer input (keypad or badge reader) and to the motor drive. This controls the rotation of the reels such that garments received on said landing spot travel on the belt(s) toward the take-up reel. The soiled scrubs are captured between the first and second belts, and compressed between the belts onto the lower reel. The compression of the soiled scrubs between the two belts on the lower drum is extremely effective in increasing the storage capacity of the return unit.
A digital camera within the upper part of the cabinet housing records images of garments placed into the cabinet before they are wound onto the belts. The digital camera can also record the associated customer ID information, either from an LED display or recorded electronically. The digital images can be recorded on a computer-type magnetic disk drive, either within the cabinet or in the laundry facility. If foreign material (i.e., items other than scrubs) is found in the unit, the digital pictures can be quickly and easily retrieved by the laundry personnel, and the user or customer identification for this foreign matter can be found. If, as should normally be the case, only scrubs are found in the unit, then the stored images can be erased from the magnetic disk without need for review.
An advantage of this system is the ease with which the soiled garments can be retrieved from it. A discharge door is located on the front of the cabinet housing, and is opened by laundry personnel to permit discharge of returned scrubs from the cabinet. A laundry bin can be placed below this door, and the controller board actuated so that the reels turn in a reverse direction. The belts unwind from the lower or take-up reel, and bring the scrubs forward that are compressed on the reel. The scrubs are discharged through the discharge door and into the bin. This occurs without the attendant having to reach into the machine. Also, the returned scrubs are stored on the belts in the order in which they are returned, and are discharged in the reverse order. If there are any foreign articles discharged from the cabinet, they will also be discharged in the same order. This makes it simple for the laundry attendant to estimate when the foreign articles were returned, and facilitate finding the recorded images and ID information on the magnetic disk.
In one embodiment, the return port or load door may be in the form of a drawer that is positioned at or near the cabinet, i.e., above the landing spot of the belt(s). The drawer can be pulled out from the cabinet housing to an open position, and the returned scrubs can be laid in the open drawer. Then, when pushed in to a closed position, the drawer rocks down and permits the garment to drop to the landing spot. The drawer may have a divider so that a scrub tops are placed to one side of the divider and scrub bottoms placed to the other side of the divider.
Alternatively, the return port may be a top-loading door at a top of the cabinet housing.
Preferably the scrub tops and scrub bottoms are wound up on the left and right sides of the belts, or else on different belt systems, in order to make even the distribution of scrubs being stored. The load door or drawer may also have a sensor to ensure that the tops and pants or bottoms are loaded on the correct sides of the drawer. The scrubs are wound tightly on the lower reel or drum, which compresses them to achieve maximum storage. The scrubs are tracked to fall and be captured between the two belts, and then wound onto the lower belt. The belts are advanced for each scrub or set of scrubs returned. The belts may be of a plastic resin material, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, vinyl, reinforced vinyl, sheet material made of HDPE fibers (sold by Dupont as TYVEK), or another suitable material. The belts may favorably be of an open mesh material, and may be either a disposable material or a washable material. The drive mechanisms for the reels or drums can be chain drive or belt drive.
A cabinet made according to these same basic principles can be configured as a dispensing unit, e.g., as a towel dispenser for hotel poolside use. In that case, the towels could be pre-loaded and dispensed to hotel guests one at a time, by running the belts in the direction from the lower drum toward the other reels or drums.
The laundry computer system may also track the order in which given sizes of scrub suits are returned during the day, either for statistical or other purposes.
As aforesaid, the associated scrubs dispensing mechanism and technique are the subjects of a separate invention, and that is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Appln. Ser. No. 09/483,961 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,934.
The above and many other objects, features, and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the ensuing description of a selected preferred embodiment, which is to be considered in connection with the accompanying Drawing.